NCAA TOURNAMENT -- ALBUQUERQUE REGIONAL

Washington Jumps To A 27-8 Lead And Eventually Beats Montana 88-77.

As a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, the Huskies no longer are lovable underdogs.

That became clear Thursday late in Washington's 88-77 first-round NCAA victory over Montana. Holding a nine-point lead with a little more than six minutes to play, the Huskies began to hear chants of "over-rated" emanating from the pro-Grizzly crowd of 11,878 at Taco Bell Arena.

Being on the top line of the Albuquerque Regional "is hard because the whole game you're thinking about it," said junior guard Brandon Roy, who led the Huskies with 17 points in 29 minutes off the bench. "We're still new to this so we just need to take from this win and grow.

"We're No. 1 and a lot of people think we shouldn't be."

Up next for Washington, which improved to 28-5 and had five players score in double figures: No. 8 seed Pacific on Saturday.

Washington, eager to show doubting fans it was deserving of a top seed, jumped the Grizzlies at the opening tip, running out to a 16-2 lead and extending their advantage to 19 points, 27-8, with 11 minutes 53 second remaining in the half.

That made the Washington officials look smart because it was announced before the game that third-year Coach Lorenzo Romar had been granted an eight-year extension.

Still, the Huskies seemed unfocused on a few occasions in the second half. Montana was twice able to close its deficit to single digits, the last, 72-63, with 6:11 to play.